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A man accused of stealing motorbikes from a Melbourne warehouse says someone who looked like dead US rapper Biggie Smalls planted evidence on him.

New Zealand man Alex Jones appeared before the Sunshine Magistrates Court via video link on Tuesday charged over a break-in at Allied Seafreights in Laverton North - a rural-urban fringe suburb of Melbourne, Victoria - on July 10.

Jones told police who arrested him near the warehouse that a screwdriver and motorcycle key found in his clothing had been "planted".

"He said they were planted on him by two unknown African American males," Constable David Van Der Merwe told the court.

"He then said one of the males looked like a person called Biggie Smalls."

Biggie Smalls - real name Christopher Wallace - was also known as the Notorious B.I.G.

He was shot dead in 1997.

Jones also told police he had been threatened with a knife by one of the men.

"One of them ... forced him under duress to put the screwdriver in his pants," Const Van Der Merwe said.

Police say CCTV footage from the warehouse shows three motorcycles being moved from their storage positions by two men.

Allied Seafreights' warehouse and container facility on Dohertys Road had been repeatedly targeted by thieves in the weeks before Jones was arrested, Van Der Merwe said in a preliminary brief tendered to court.

Ten motorcycles were reported stolen on July 4, and police suspect Jones may have been involved with the earlier thefts.